SONIA GANDHI - " WALK THE TALK "          
with Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express

Congress president Sonia Gandhi spoke to Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express, on how she came to the centrestage of Indian politics, her relationship with Indira Gandhi and Varun Gandhi joining the BJP. Excerpts from Part I of the interview telecast on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk:

• Since you know my guest today so well let me first tell you about this remarkable setting. This is Swaraj Bhavan, part of the larger Anand Bhavan complex in Allahabad, the home of the Nehru-Gandhi family, and my guest today, somebody who carries that formidable dynasty on her slender shoulders if I can put it like that Welcome to Swaraj Bhavan • Thank you for finding the time in the very busy election season Yes, very busy. In fact I have been touring Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and other states...only yesterday I was in Benares, Badhoi, Mirzapur. And it’s going to carry on like this till the end. • Life changes a great deal. Let me go back to where it began, when did you first come to Anand Bhavan? I came to Anand Bhavan in 1970 and that was when Indiraji dedicated Anand Bhavan and Swaraj Bhavan to the nation, in terms that it became a museum, open to the public. That was 1970, I had been married for two years, I was mother of a young baby, Rahul. It left a great impression on me. My mother-in-law was winding up, deciding which things to leave here or take, there were still some personal items here. She was describing to me —and one of the friends who had accompanied us —what all happens in both these houses. • From whom did you first hear about the freedom movement and the politics of those years? From Rajiv or your mother-in-law? Certainly from my mother-in-law. In fact, whenever she was free or when you were — seldom though — holidaying with her, she would always recount and tell us about her childhood, her youth, which, of course, was part and parcel of the freedom struggle. • But you never imagined at that point that either your husband or you would ever get caught up in this? No, never. I never imagined that. I had just come here for marrying Rajivji. And that never crossed my mind or my husband’s mind for that matter. • But you never thought when you got married to Rajiv that you were marrying into a political family? When I came to this family, I was a complete anaari on what was going to come. • Anaari means novice, but it’s not an apt translation... But you know what it means. Here, this house, they moved in here precisely about 104 years ago, Motilal Nehru. And Mahatma Gandhi came here in 1919. And that was when Motilal Nehru was persuaded by Mahatma Gandhi and by his son to join the movement. And in 1919 when the non-cooperation movement was launched, it was in this courtyard that they made a huge mountain of all imported matters, mostly dress materials, and they made a bonfire as a symbol of rejecting foreign goods. • But when you came here in the 1970s, you were much more an Italian than an Indian...you were here for a very short time. Yes, at that time I was adjusting...adjusting to life here, to ways of thinking, but that is something that happens to every young bride when she gets married. • Because India at 1968, 1970 was very different from India 2004. And for somebody who came in from Europe, it would have been serious adjustment issues. Well, there were many similarities of mindset, cultural, at least of that period, of the country that I came from and India. • Give me some examples of similarities... Of family bonding, the way the family is together, respect for certain values. But of course I can say that there was certain amount of adjustment, which had to be made. But it wasn’t as difficult as perhaps... • ...as you may have imagined before you came here? Frankly, I came here because I was madly in love with my husband, and he was with me. So nothing else mattered. It didn’t matter what I had to face...and that also helped. • But did you have any apprehensions, kabhi ghabrahat hui aapko? No, ghabrahat nahin, at least I can’t recollect any such ghabrahat. The fact that it does not remain in my mind means that there wasn’t such a major — there was sort of adjustments perhaps of food or dress, little little things. My mother-in-law was very understanding, and she tackled me very cleverly unlike perhaps some other mother-in-laws I know who force their daughter-in-laws to be, you know, ‘you have to do this...’ She allowed me to be myself. She didn’t force me to into things that she felt I could be uncomfortable with, and I think that was a very intelligent way of tackling me because on my own I slowly slowly adjusted, and did things that if perhaps, had she told me to do I wouldn’t have done. • Like what? For instance, if we go to a wedding, you have to wear a saree. Or you have to eat Indian food...slowly slowly I started eating Indian food and now I can’t do without it. • Then in Delhi you didn’t get much pasta, but now you do — half the Punjabi chefs in Delhi make pasta... Yes, I know, but I am very fond of Indian food. In our house, we eat mostly Indian food. Occasionally, some friends come and ask for pasta, then it is made. • Do you cook? No. I used to when my husband wasn’t in politics. I used to look after my family, I used to look after my mother-in-law, and she did occasionally enjoy western meals, so I used to...but when I got married I didn’t know how to cook. I had to learn from books and recipes. • So what were your mother-in-law’s favourites? Well, she did enjoy pasta, occasionally. • That’s what your critics say sometimes: Congress party ka ek hi raasta, bolo Italian khao pasta. Have you ever heard it? (Laughs) Yes I have heard it. • Tell me, what else did you learn from your mother-in-law? She was a tough woman. She was a very strong woman, but she had a very gentle side to her...a side that very few people know. She had an eye for detail. If someone was unhappy or unwell, she would immediately notice and she would immediately do something about it. Perhaps by jotting down two lines. For instance, I remember when I got married, my mother came to the wedding and she stayed for a month. And when she was going, obviously it was a sad moment for me. And my mother-in-law sent a little note to me: ‘Hi Sonia, this is just to tell you that we all love you’. And that totally melted me. It gave me a lot of strength, that I am loved and cared for. • Do you have any recollections from that time of her responses to things that were happening in India which showed her character to you...something that made her angry, something that made her very determined? She was at her best when faced with challenges. If she was pushed to the wall, there was pressure on her, she would come out and really fight back. • Give me some examples... When there was a split in her party... • In 1969 Yes, she came out and fought. I remember the elections for the president at that time. • Sanjeeva Reddy and Nijalingappa...Reddy was the presidential candidate. Yes, that was a time when she came out strongly and aggressively. • Was that the first time when you saw her as the iron women as she came to be known as later? Yes. • And the Bangladesh war, do you recollect any of that? Yes, Bangladesh war was a very exciting moment for all of us, we lived every moment of that crisis in our family. And I remember when Mujibur Rahman came to Delhi from London, there was a big reception at the airport, even though I was about to deliver my other child the next day, I made it a point to be there at the airport. There was such excitement. • What was the conversation on your dining table like during the days of the war? Well, mostly we were getting reports of the atrocities by the Pakistani army on the people of Bangladesh. Then the crisis of — I think we had 10 million refugees — coming in from Bangladesh. Nowadays when you read about 3 million refugees, a couple of hundred thousand refugees, the whole world... • But during those 13 days of the war, is there something that Mrs Gandhi said at the dining table that you remember? Obviously, she won’t come out with the details, but she would certainly talk that today this happened, they have killed so many people, so many refugees have come in. Throughout that period she was composed, calm. • The other turning point in her political career, the Emergency. What side of her did you see then, and how did you and Rajiv respond to the Emergency? Well, my mother-in-law herself, after she lost the elections, she did herself say that she had a rethink on that. And the very fact that she declared elections proves that she had a rethink on the Emergency. • Do you think that she really thought that it was a mistake? I think she did think it was a mistake. Don’t forget that, at least the Indira Gandhi I knew, was a democrat at heart, to the core. I think circumstances compelled her to take that action. But she was never quite at ease with it. • But did it come across at conversations at home, that she was not at ease with it? That she wanted it to be over? Yes, there were instances, through what she said, her comments, from which one could understand that. I can’t recall any particular instance but I can recall that at times she was uneasy about it. • After that, the Opposition, the public opinion responded to Emergency. Remember that slogan? Emergency ke teen dalal, Indira, Sanjay, Bansi Lal, that public rejection...was that a low moment in the family as well? Well, there is no way we can say that the Emergency was right. She herself said it wasn’t right. But there was a great deal of propaganda against Mrs Gandhi, deliberately done. And I think there were even some reports post-Emergency that went into details of the family planning programme which turned out to say that the problems were magnified. Yes there were problems, but not in the scale that the Opposition had built up. • But Emergency was a lesson that no government will repeat such a thing. It is not possible to bring in so much authoritarianism in India, the Indian system will not accept it. I guess yes, but those were different times. • Do you remember this coming up between Mrs Gandhi and Rajiv or between Sanjay and Rajiv at that point? I do remember, but I wouldn’t like to disclose it. • 25 years have gone past, may be you should. May be another 25 years, may be I’ll write it some day • But can you say that this is something that one can make a reasonable guess as to what the conversation was? Well, I said I wouldn’t like to discuss it now, may be another time. • But there is a certain irony to the fact that one member of your family who was so involved in the Emergency, namely Sanjay, his family is now on the other side. Well, I can only say what I said the other day, he (Varun Gandhi) is a young man, he is embarking on a political career, I wish him well. • Does it cause unhappiness — I wont say bitterness — in your mind? These are visceral issues in our politics: to be with the BJP or not with the BJP. And if one section of the immediate Gandhi family goes that side, does it hurt you? Not politically, I mean personally or ideologically? In some ways, it is painful. You are here in this house where the freedom movement took place, where strategies for the course of the movement were envisaged, this house symbolises the freedom movement...it symbolises not only the fight against the British, but also a fight against communal forces. My mother-in-law was born here and other members of the Nehru family, stalwarts of the freedom movement came here, they lived and died upholding certain principles...and secularism, this principle, the fight against communal forces of all kind, was very much core of... • And direct descendants of that family go and join the BJP now, does it amount to betraying that legacy? I would not like to comment on this, I wish my nephew all the best. • That you should even if he were a political opponent. But I am just talking in philosophical terms. Would it hurt less if he were in another party than the BJP? I would rather not go beyond this. ON THE RECORD: SONIA GANDHI ‘I haven’t seen feel-good anywhere. It must be in the pockets of govt’s cronies’ Sonia Gandhi spoke to Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express, on the reasons why she stepped into active politics; what she thinks of the BJP, PM Vajpayee, and the Gujarat riots; and the demand for her children to enter politics. Excerpts from Part II of the interview telecast on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk: • What motivated you to come into politics? After your husband’s assassination, you stayed out for sometime, but what is it that forced you, motivated you, inspired you, or told you that there is no choice? Well, the Congress was going through some problems. And many of my senior colleagues came and asked me to come and help the Congress, to participate in Congress activities because they felt that it would help the party to a certain extent. And I thought hard about it, but there was a conflict within me because I was never ever keen to join politics. In fact, I never even wanted my husband to join politics because I had seen my mother-in-law’s life, her struggle...all sorts of calumnies being hurled at her and she led a life of service, and then she was killed. • So you have seen the price you have to pay for politics... Yes, I have seen that. And at that time I felt about my husband that possibly the same would happen to him. In fact, after my mother-in-law was killed, I knew that he too would be killed. • You knew means there was an inevitability, there was a premonition? All of us, my children and me, knew that it was just a question of when. It was a difficult phase, but eventually...I have photographs of my husband and my mother-in-law in my office. And each time I walked past those photographs, I felt that I wasn’t responding to my duty, the duty to this family and to the country. I felt I was being cowardly to just sit and watch things deteriorate in the Congress for which my mother-in-law and the whole family lived and died. So at that point I took the decision. • It was not just the pressure from the party people coming and saying ‘Mrs Gandhi come and get us the votes’? Yes, there was a certain amount of....party people coming and saying that I ought to help out the party. But it was more than that. It was this feeling of responsibility towards the family. And the country...because their lives were the country, service to the people. • Did you see anything happening in the country that said to you ‘I should be in politics’? Did you see any trends in the society or was it just the family and the party? At that time there was a trend...that was 1998 and the BJP was gaining. And that was the main reason for me taking that decision. • Why does the BJP worry you? It is a political party... Because the BJP is a party which believes in a divisive agenda. It has a particular agenda, which at the moment they have sort of softened or kept on the side. • But haven’t they given it up pretty much in a coalition situation? No I don’t think so. Here their leaders are giving statements like as soon as we are in power by ourselves, our agenda will be fulfilled. And we all know what their agenda is. This is an agenda against which my whole family has fought, they lived and died for the country... they fought this agenda because this agenda, if it is carried out, will divide our country. • And you think that they have got close to succeeding? Well, at the moment it has been partially stalled because since they don’t have the strength they have to have this alliance. • But tell me something, this is the first time in 30 years that an incumbent government is being given a reasonable chance of coming back to power, 1984 being an exception. What is it that the Congress party and its allies are proposing to people that might be better than what NDA has? Well, first of all, what we propose to people is what we have always proposed, don’t forget that we have been in power for 47 years. We have had stable governments for 47 years. So, we have experience in governance, we have an all inclusive agenda, not an exclusivist one. • Can you explain that? Well, our policies are for everyone, for all sections of society. • But there are those who say that this government has done more in five years than the Congress did in 47-50 years? This is a ridiculous statement. How can it be? Is it possible? • People talk about reforms, growth... Economic growth has been lower under this government than under Indiraji, Rajivji and under Narasimha Rao. And I am not saying this out of hot air. There are reports, figures. If you move around, out of Delhi...I was travelling here in western UP, Poorvanchal, eastern UP, in Orissa. If there is economic growth, it is not seen in the rural areas. There is tremendous distress and suffering among the farmers, amongst the youth, and unemployment is rising. The shocking thing is that unemployment is rising also in the private sector. • So what are the three things that your government will do that will be an improvement over the current government? Well, first of all, I know there are some reservations among people on our stand on reforms... economic reforms. There should be no worry whatsoever. The policy of continuing with economic reform will carry on. Nobody should have any doubts on that. But our economic reforms are slightly different from the BJP’s. In ours, there is a very strong focus on social welfare programmes, rural development programmes, in poverty alleviation programmes and in administrative and financial strengthening of panchayats which has not taken place. In the case of this government what they have done, they have chipped and chopped so many of the poverty alleviation programmes that they have become practically ineffective. By the way, let me tell you we greatly admire our entrepreneurs, our administrators and members of the business class because they have done a great deal for the country. The business community going ahead, we are all for it. But at the same time we have to focus on the poor. • People from the Congress who have authored economic reforms, particularly Dr Manmohan Singh, they will have a key role in the government? Certainly, most certainly. Business going ahead and a special focus on poverty alleviation programme, social welfare, these are not mutually exclusive. • So there is no rejection of Dr Manmohan Singh or his policies? No, not at all. This is again, yeh to galat fehmi hain. Kisine failaya ki humlog rethink kar rahe hain. Aisi baat nahin hain. • Aaapke party ke log bar bar kehte hain ki galti ho gayee. Nahin. Let me tell you, during Narasimha Rao’s time, even during Rajivji’s time when economic reforms were first introduced these were the very people who attacked Congress bitterly on economic reforms. • You mean the BJP? All the parties which were on the other side including the BJP. So now it is a bit of a farce. • You have been in active politics for nearly six years. What were your angriest moments? More than anger it was anguish. And that was during the riots in Gujarat. • What was your immediate reaction? My immediate reaction was, I wanted to go there right away and I asked my office to organise it. • Yeh sawal ham log bhi kai bar poochte hain, ki aapke party ke MP ko jalaya, to aap ekdam wahan kyon nahin gaye? Precisely. I was absolutely distraught, and immediately I asked my office, the SPG, to arrange a trip there because I wanted to be there. But the SPG said there was absolutely no question that they would allow me to go. And I did go after a few days. The excuse given to us by government was that if we went there then security arrangement would have been necessary for me and any other VIP. And that would have disturbed the other... but as soon as I could, I went there, I visited some of the hospitals and I can never forget the horrible sights I saw. Later on, I went as part of a Parliamentary delegation. We went to Godhra and we saw the train and what happened there, as well as the areas in Ahmedabad and around where atrocities had been committed on minorities. • Were you bitter or frustrated that even after this, Narendra Modi won such a big victory and your party had not been able to stop him? Well, certainly it was disappointing for all of us that we were not able to win those elections. The message, naturally, of that elections was that these kinds of acts had been endorsed by the voters. • Tab laga aapko ke secular forces ko saath hona chahiye, coalition banana chahiye? Yes, I felt strongly, and I feel strongly that we have to come together if we want to see to it that such acts are not repeated. • Your commitment to the coalition idea is not just for this elections? Do you see this as India’s future politics? This is a trend which has started for some time, and I see it continuing and therefore as long as it is needed we will work with other parties, with like-minded parties. • But do you think the Congress party took too long to come to this conclusion? I don’t think so. Till 1996, the Congress always came to power on its own. So the necessity was not there. • But the party missed it in 1998-1999. Yes, that was a mistake. • You are not going to repeat that? No, never. • Indian election is also presidential election in a way. One side says Vajpayee is your prime minister. Vajpayee has a formidable reputation, he has a name. Isn’t it tough for you to go to the polls without telling the people who the prime minister will be? Well, since you talk about Vajpayee having a formidable reputation, this government may have stayed under the leadership of the prime minister, may have run the five-year course. In that sense, yes, it has been there for five years. But there has been great inconsistency in this government’s policies. They have gone from one extreme to the other in many areas. For instance, Pakistan. We had aar paar ki ladai, then we had huge deployment of forces on the border. Meanwhile, the PM says we shall never talk to Pakistan. And suddenly, without any reason, the forces were taken back. So there has been a complete flip-flop in an area like India-Pakistan relations which is a very crucial one. Same with Ayodhya too. There has been a complete shift from one extreme to the other. One member of the PM’s party says nice, moderate things and two days later someone from the VHP or the RSS will say something nasty which contradicts the moderation of the prime minister. • But what do you think about Vajpayee, as a fellow parliamentarian, as a rival? Well, he’s been there for more than half a century in politics, so... • There are those who say that he has acquired a Nehruvian halo, same kind of credibility, even among those who don’t vote for him. Sorry, I totally disagree with it. And those who say that don’t know about Nehru, they haven’t obviously not read anything on about who Nehru was or what Nehru did. • But he’s seen as somebody who is inclusivist, who takes many forces along with him, who is generous and who has personal integrity? But that’s a way of putting it...generous and takes all the forces with him. But generous in what sense? Because you are blackmailed, ‘unless you give me that ministry, I ’ll leave’. And then you are forced to give that person a ministry. That is being generous? He’s being blackmailed into doing it. • And he allows him to be blackmailed? Obviously, obviously. • National elections have become presidential in a way, and one coalition says he’s your PM. You like him, vote for him, you don’t like him vote against him. Can you go to the polls without telling people who the PM will be? Frankly, at the moment my priority is to do with all in my power, to work with others, to see that this government is replaced. • And who comes to power doesn’t matter? That is not a priority for me at the moment. • What’s the reason that you think this government must go, even more important than power for yourself? Because they haven’t fulfilled even a single promise of theirs. One crore jobs— you go anywhere, if you step out of this house, you will come across hundreds of thousands of young men and women who don’t know where to go. They have no future because they are jobless. There has been no growth of investment in the agricultural sector or in the industrial sector. Kisaan aur naujavan des ki jaan hain, hai ki nahin? So if you don’t do anything to give them security... • So then where is the feel-good factor from? Frankly, I don’t know. I haven’t seen it anywhere in the places I have been. Feel-good factor could be among some crony of the government. • Crony in what sense? Cronies, friends...there is a lot of cronyism going on, even in disinvestment. So, that feel-good factor could certainly be in the pockets of those people. • That’s a serious charge to make. Well, I have read it in your newspaper. • Well, if you keep blaming my newspaper for everything, I have to go back and do some answering. You are an objective newspaper person, your newspaper is respected for that. • The campaigns of this government, apart from the fact that they talk about their performance in the past five years, the second leg is about your origin. It is not just your origin, it is even your children’s half-foreign origin. That should tell you, that’s a message to all of us that they have so totally failed that they have to pick up this one issue. • But is that a liability for you or your party that you originally came from Italy? Isn’t that a liability? Does it work adversely with some workers? It may work adversely with some voters. But frankly wherever I go, especially in rural areas, among women, among less fortunate people, I have never felt — even when I first started working in Amethi — that I am a foreigner or that they look at me as a foreigner because I am not. I am an Indian. • Do you feel fully like an Indian? Absolutely • When did the transition start? When was it completed? Well, the transition was completed long ago. It was a slow transition. After all, marrying into this sort of family, which was part of the freedom movement, which sacrificed, which lived in complete service, seva, of the people. They had no life outside this. So you also imbibe and assimilate a certain amount of these feelings. • So do you resent it when they talk about your foreign origin? Not at all. In fact, it makes me laugh. How can I resent it if I feel completely Indian? In fact, when I go abroad, I feel a foreigner there. • You talked about life outside this family, seva. If you were not in politics, if you had spare time how would you spend it? You watch movies, cook? Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to watch movies, though I’d like to. But I do relax, for instance, by reading, I used to read much much more. • What kind of things did you use to read? Autobiographies, books on history, sociology...and am presently reading Shashi Tharoor’s Nehru: The Invention of India, and of course, I relax the most when I have my family with me, my two grandchildren. • Is there time for family vacation now? I don’t see it coming, not for some months. • But when you had personal space, I presume, when Rajiv went into politics... Yes, first of all, when Rajivji went into politics, I started looking after his constituency. So I used to regularly go, dealing mostly with issues of women, health and education. After that, when he lost elections, I used to go to the museum to do some voluntary restoration work. But when Rajivji was assassinated, we set up the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. • Let me ask you the inevitable question. When do we see your children in politics? I know your party wants it... I feel silly repeating the same answer. But... • No, you can repeat it. I will ask you a question following that, which is a mother’s answer. Give me the Congress president’s answer. Is it better for the party that your children get more involved or not? I don’t think I can answer that. • The choice is still with them, but give me the Congress president’s answer I won’t. • I think your silence answered some of that. (Pointing) This is where Jawaharlal Nehru’s ashes were kept before immersion, and Indiraji’s, Sanjayji’s...and mine will also be kept there. This is the tradition of the family. ‘Babri should have been handled differently. Yes (we paid a price for it)’   Congress president Sonia Gandhi spoke to Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of The Indian Express, on how her party has learnt its lesson from the Babri Masjid demolition. And why the Congress should not be called a party of the old. Concluding part of the interview from NDTV 24X7’s Walk the Talk: The transition from a close-knit family to a politician...what was the most difficult thing to adjust to in politics? Well, the most difficult thing to adjust to was the fact that in politics you have to be constantly available to the people, you have very little time left to yourself and to your family. Certainly in the beginning there was a little bit of difficulty but very soon I got used to it. So do you miss the personal space that you had earlier? I think I have got used to it now. And I think perhaps, if I take up a job or a duty I feel very strongly that you have to pursue that. Therefore I don’t really miss it. But what would you have done with it if you had that space? Well, I would have first of all loved to have done a Bharat Yatra throughout the country and visit all the beautiful places that we have. I have done a little bit earlier when my husband was not in politics, but in a very small way. So this has always been one of my strong desires. Coming to the Congress party, you have all your dadas of politics. Pachas pachas saal se they were in and out of power. It is not called India’s grand old party for no reason. So did you find a generation gap between you and the leadership of the Congress party? No. First of all I am quite aware that this is continuously hurled at us that you are an old party, you have only old people. It’s said that the front row of your party in Parliament looks like an intensive care unit without the tubes...You have so many old people there. That is not so at all. In India you have a huge percentage of young people. But in that case, since this is constantly hurled at us, I would like to ask, do the Prime Minister and the Home Minister reflect young India? Do they? No. They have seniority, but they have so many others in the party who are much younger. So do we. I have many senior colleagues, I need their experience, wisdom and counsel. Also, we have a huge number of young people, you don’t see them since they don’t have a position of power, we are not in government. For instance, in the last Congress government (1991-96) we had a large number of young men and women who were ministers. For instance, Salman Khurshid, Margaret Alva, Shailja, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Suresh Pachauri. I can give you at least 12-15 names off hand. They are still young, much younger than the present members of the BJP. And if they were to come to power, you will empower them and trust them with responsibility? Certainly. I believe strongly the younger generation has to be given responsibility. And not just as Ministers of State... ...Not just as Ministers of State. And besides, most of our Chief Ministers are young. But the impression in the recent Assembly elections was that somehow they were not packaged properly. I for one, would have liked to see S M Krishna campaigning in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh. People don’t get adequate impression that Congress party is not just a party of the Opposition, they rule a lot of India. You see, all these Chief Ministers, normally they go and campaign. In all elections...you see Amarinder Singh, Digvijay Singh, Ashok Gehlot, Krishna in the South, in the North-East we had Mukut Mithi, who, I think, was the youngest CM when he was in power. So they used to spread out throughout the country and canvass for the Congress party. It just happened that in the last elections...or Shielaji also campaigns for us in the elections...But these state elections directly involved these three Chief Ministers, so they could not directly...they were tied down to their states. Madhavrao Scindia once told me, ‘‘my party still keeps telling me, you are young, you need more experience, and I tell them, I am 54 years old, I am a grandfather, what else do I have to do?’’ So your party has that problem. Well, in the case of Madhavrao, he became the deputy leader in the House. But the party has also been unfortunate in losing three young leaders. That was most unfortunate: Madhavrao, Rajesh Pilot, Jitendra Prasad. That was tragic for us. Do we then say that if you come to power, we will see a much younger cabinet? Yes, most definitely. You will also see some senior colleagues. But you will see a large number of young Congressmen and women as ministers. Do you ever find your partymen worried about the fact that your foreign origin is a campaign issue for your opponents? That you have to ask my colleagues, but as far as I am concerned I travel all over the country and wherever I have been I was never made to feel or looked upon as a foreigner. I feel completely Indian and that’s perhaps why they accept me as Indian. And you are there with the party now forever? It’s not as people say: if Mrs Gandhi loses one more election, she will get fed up and go away. Once I have taken a decision...I thought long and hard upon it. Like my family members, when I have taken a decision, I don’t look back. So that decision is taken, and there’s no turning back irrespective of what happens in this election. No. I have certain duties which I have to fulfill, about which I have spoken earlier. And there’s no turning back. One more thing about your party, you talk of secular commitment, but it was under your party’s rule that the destruction of Babri Masjid took place. Where were you and what were your thoughts at that time? I know you were not in government. Well, I wasn’t in politics. As the chairperson of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, we issued a very strong statement. That was again a day I shall never forget. In fact, that brought not just tears, we were all distraught... well, the Congress was in power in the Centre but don’t forget there was a BJP government in UP. But did you see that as a failure of your party’s government? When you look back, it’s been 10 years, do you think something could have been handled differently? Yes, I certainly think that it should have been handled differently. But then, as an afterthought when something happens... But your party had to pay a price for it. Yes. Are you now giving those angry people, the Muslims, the assurance that lessons from this have been learnt. Yes, absolutely, lessons have been learnt. And I am guaranteeing the right of life and property to all citizens. Such a thing won’t be repeated. Where does the Congress party stand on the issue of temple and Ayodhya? Our stand has been very consistent unlike that of the Bharatiya Janata Party. We have always said that this has to be resolved through the court. And if there is an understanding between the concerned parties even that has to have the sanction of the court. Even if Hindus and Muslim parties come to some conclusion, it has to be sanctified by the court, whether Dalai Lama gets it done or whoever gets it done? Yes. It has to have the sanction of the court. Concluded           Bio Speeches Interviews / Interactions Gallery Photos Video Audio Renunciation Reiteration Documents Archives Screensaver     Sitemap              Search              Feedback © Copyright AICC 2008 | Privacy policy. Best viewed with IE 4 + browsers at 1024 X 768 resolution.